BC News

2026-02-10

  BC’s seafood harvesters say political commitments to global conservation targets will kill BC fisheries.

  This week Ottawa’s Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans heard from BC seafood producers what committing to targets set by the United Nations will mean in reality for people living and working on the coast.

  “There’s significant areas that will be closed to a large number of fisheries on the West Coast,” said Underwater Harvesters Association executive director Grant Dovey, under questioning from committee member Aaron Gunn, MP for Vancouver Island North.

  Dovey represents geoduck harvesters in BC and said plans to include more coastline in protected areas have his members and other fishers worried. He said BC has already surpassed the UN target of protecting 30 per cent of lands and waters by 2030, and harvesters have already dealt with reductions as a result.

“We can live with that, we can survive with that,” he said. “But what’s on deck with the Northern Shelf Bioregion and the draft closures there will impact 20-50% of key access for key fisheries on the coast, and it will push fisheries over the edge.”

  Dovey said that despite government promises, no socioeconomic impact studies have been done on the potential impacts, and no economic analysis done since 2020.

  Gunn pointed out the UN “30 by 30” commitment is for all of Canada, and federal politicians are pushing BC to disproportionately shoulder most the burden so east coast provinces don’t have to lock up as much of their own coastlines in protected areas. And while government continues to be unclear about how exactly it will protect more coastline, and with what criteria, coastal communities in his riding are struggling to cope, he said.

  “That uncertainty is leading to people exiting fisheries, families who have been doing it for three generations,” he said.

  Impacts will be felt by more than just geoduck harvesters. Gunn said prawn fisheries will be among the first affected, along with long-line halibut fisheries.

  On Feb. 6, 2023, the federal government announced its committment to the Northern Shelf Bioregion Network Action Plan, which was developed by 15 coastal First Nations with provincial and federal governments. It was immediately condemned by the BC Seafood Alliance: executive director Christina Burridge said it “flies in the face of commercial fishery advice provided by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous fish harvesters that would have met or exceeded government conservation objectives while reducing the impacts to commercial fisheries and food security.”

  By the end of 2023, BC had already exceeded federal targets, with 35% of the province’s coastline conserved and protected in marine protected areas.